Gholamreza Khosravi executed in Iran following an unfair trial

We have been informed that Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani has been executed by the Iranian authorities this morning in Rajai Shahr prison in the city of Karaj following an unfair trial on the charge of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) for being a supporter of the banned Iranian opposition group, People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

Gholamreza Khosravi was a political prisoner who spent 40 months in solitary confinement in various detention centres following his arrest in 2007 in the city of Kerman. During his detention he refused to “confess” to charges laid against him and was tortured and ill-treated as a result of this. Gholamreza Khosravi was among the prisoners of ward 350 of Tehran’s Evin prison who were brutally raided and beaten on 17th April by the regime’s forces.

On 28 May the Iranian authorities transferred Gholamreza Khosravi from ward 350 of Evin prison to Rajai Shahr prison in the city of Karaj where he spent his last moments in solitary confinement ahead of his execution on 1st June. According to the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, the authorities asked him to inform his family about the scheduled execution and to pay him a last visit.

Amnesty International issued a press release on 31st May, on the eve of Gholamreza Khosravi’s execution, urging the Iranian authorities to halt his execution. The Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa of Amnesty International emphasised that, “Yet again Iranian authorities are about to execute a man who did not even receive a fair trial in total disregard of both international law and the Iranian law”.

Despite pledges made by President Hassan Rouhani, during his campaign and after he took office in 2013, that his cabinet will significantly improve the human rights situation in Iran, capital punishment has been used persistently since, with Iran ranked as the second major executioner in the world after China.

Middle East Forum for Development strongly condemns the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi and calls on the Iranian authorities to put a moratorium on the death penalty and immediately and unconditionally release all activists, lawyers, journalists and political prisoners who have been imprisoned for exercising their rights to free speech and assembly.